The A’s just set a precedent with Lawrence Butler’s extension. Should the Orioles follow suit with their young talent?

The A’s did the smart thing.

No offense, but those six words would startle any baseball fan, including their own. In a league where young, rising stars are beginning to take the spotlight, the A’s have provided a blueprint for teams looking to secure their promising prospects long-term.

And no team is better positioned to follow this model than the Baltimore Orioles, who have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to young hitters.

If they want to sustain a winning culture well beyond arbitration battles, now is the time to act.

Lawrence Butler, a 24-year-old outfielder, just inked a seven-year, $65.5 million extension with the A’s, keeping him under team control through 2031.

This deal bypasses Butler’s arbitration years and provides cost certainty for both the player and the organization.

Butler gets financial security and can focus on his craft while the A’s lock in a key piece of their future at an affordable rate.

The contract gradually scales in value, ensuring the A’s won’t break the bank in the short term while keeping a cornerstone player locked in for his prime years.

What does this have to do with the Orioles?

Baltimore boasts two players in a nearly identical situation, Colton Cowser and Jordan Westburg. Both are around the same age as Butler and have logged a similar amount of service time.

More importantly, their offensive production is comparable, making them prime candidates for the same kind of long-term investment.

The beauty of extending Cowser and Westburg now is that neither player has to shoulder the burden of being the guy in Baltimore.

As Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman are already leading the charge, Cowser and Westburg can be key complementary pieces in an already potent lineup.

They don’t need to be superstars, they just need to be themselves: athletic hitters with high upside who can bring value in a critical juncture.

For a franchise like the Orioles, securing this kind of talent early is crucial. This isn’t an organization that can outspend the Dodgers, Yankees, or Mets in free agency.

But where the Orioles separate themselves from most of the league is their ability to develop talent.

Their farm system continues to churn out big-league contributors, yet retaining them beyond their initial contracts has always been the challenge.

Too often in MLB, teams let their young stars stack up numbers through their arbitration years before trading them for cheaper, unproven talent.

But what if there’s a better way? What if, instead of going down that road, Baltimore locked in players like Cowser and Westburg for an average of $10 million per year over seven years?

That’s a bargain for reliable, everyday contributors who will be in their prime when this team is contending for championships.

The A’s may be trying to set a precedent with Butler, but the Orioles are positioned to take that philosophy to another level.

They don’t have to wait for a rebuild to reach maturity, their championship window is already open.

With one of the most feared lineups in the American League heading into 2025. Imagine keeping that core together through the remainder of the decade and into the 2030s.

How could a World Series not find its way to Baltimore if the O’s committed to keeping this talent in-house? The A’s took the first step, but the O’s can to turn it into a winning formula for years to come.